The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS
"The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS" is the fourth episode of the fifth season of Friends, which aired on October 15, 1998. Plot Rachel goes into Monica's bedroom to bring her some mail and comes out screaming over the position she found Monica waiting in on her bed. Monica reveals that she has a secret boyfriend and claims it's a guy from work. Joey and Ross also show up and, a short while later, Chandler enters with a bottle of champagne. Upon seeing everyone there, he claims he wants to celebrate the fact that his office finally got wrinkle-free fax-paper. Rachel, unaware that the secret boyfriend is Chandler, asks Chandler if Monica has mentioned him and reveals that Monica told her that this guy is best sex she's ever had. Chandler is delighted with this news and goes overboard in his gloating. This annoys Monica, who threatens to cut Chandler off until he apologizes and tells her that, if he's the best, it's only because of her. He says that he was nothing before her, but when he's with her "Oh. My. God." Joey wears a tuxedo believing he's hired as host for a PBS telethon, but is actually just hired as one of many phone operators on screen, even sitting outside the main camera view. Phoebe says she hates PBS because it reminds her of the miserable days after her mother committed suicide when she wrote to Sesame Street ''to make herself feel better (as "they were so nice when I was a little kid!") but received no reply, only a keychain. She even complains that Joey's telethon is selfishness masquerading as a good deed; he then retorts that having the babies also wasn't a selfless good deed since she felt good about it afterwards. When Joey insists that selfless good deeds don't exist, she promises to prove they do. Because she fails at all her attempts, she decides to donate $200 to PBS, because "they bring happiness to lots of kids whose moms didn't kill themselves", and she won the bet. However, this donations leads to Joey being the volunteer which broke last year's record, so he finally gets on TV; which makes Phoebe happy; until she realizes she is feeling good about herself and that she lost the bet. Emily finally calls Ross who begs for forgiveness and a chance to work on their relationship. She agrees, but on the condition that Ross moves to London, but he refuses because he will be separated from Ben, and he also can't convince Carol and Susan to move to London. When Emily finally agrees to move to New York to work on their relationship there is one problem: she wants Ross to agree that he won't see Rachel anymore, which the others consider totally unreasonable. Because nobody, including Ross, has an idea how to solve this, he became desperate enough to leave the decision to a Magic 8 ball, which proves uncooperative. Not knowing about the condition, Rachel incites Ross to do whatever Emily wants, which he does. Cast and Crew Main Cast 'Jennifer Aniston' - Rachel Greene 'Courteney Cox' - Monica Geller 'Lisa Kudrow' - Phoebe Buffay 'Matt LeBlanc' - Joey Tribbiani 'Matthew Perry' - Chandler Bing 'David Schwimmer' - Ross Geller Supporting Cast 'Helen Baxendale' - Emily Waltham '''Gary Collins' - Himself Sandra Thigpen - The Stage Manager John R. McLaughlin - The PBS Volunteer James Michael Tyler - Gunther Jane Sibbett - Carol Willick (uncut version) Jessica Hecht - Susan Bunch (uncut version) Charles Thomas Allen or John Christoper Allen - Ben Geller (uncut version) Crew Directed By: Shelley Jenson Written By: Michael Curtis Trivia *In the uncut DVD version of the episode, Ross tries to convince Carol and Susan to move to London, to no avail. * In the DVD version Monica gives the Magic 8 Ball back to Ross after its prophecy that Chandler will not have sex that night (which turns out to be false after the two of them make up). Ross asks again if he should never see Rachel again and Rachel walks into the room at that moment and wants to know what the question to the 8 Ball was. Ross says he asked if Rachel will get to pick the movie they are going to see tonight. The answer turns out to be yes and Rachel ecstatically proclaims "Looks like Stella's gonna get her groove back tonight!" She is unaware that she has also just answered the question Ross asked before she came in (which also turns out to be wrong, so the 8 Ball was broken after all). **Stella is the protagonist of the movie How Stella Got Her Groove Back, which was released in 1998. *In this episode, the Magna Doodle says "Evil Joe". This is a reference to what Phoebe described Joey as after he'd told her there was no Santa Claus. *Phoebe got sent a key chain from Sesame Street, even though she was not living anywhere. *Joey shows an unusual amount of intellectual prowess in this episode, specifically over Phoebe. He knew that Santa didn't exist, that no selfless good deed existed, and that a bee would die after stinging something, all of which Phoebe didn't know. *After returning to Central Perk, Monica and Chandler sit down and comment about the sex they just had. The uncut DVD episode then shows them sneaking back through the door to have sex again. *This is the last time Rachel is seen in Ross's first apartment. While it's unknown if she ever visits his second apartment, the next apartment belonging to Ross she visits is Ugly Naked Guy's apartment where Ross moves later in the season. *The knock Rachel uses on Ross's door is the same one she uses on Danny's door in The One With The Yeti. *The studios where Joey does the telethon is Unitel Video Studio 55, located in Manhattan. Until 1991, it was the home of Children's Television Workshop who produce Sesame Street, hence Phoebe's reference to the show. Goofs *When Susan and Ben come in, they knock, even though its Susan's apartment. *At the beginning of the episode when Rachel is going into Monica's room, she is wearing closed-toe heels. However, when Rachel bursts out after seeing Monica waiting for Chandler, she is wearing open-toe heels. *Monica comes to get her pan back from Chandler, and when she opens the door, the magna doodle pen is hanging down. The shot changes and it is attached to the board; it changes again and it is hanging once more. *It is very coincidental that every time Phoebe calls the PBS Telethon she only gets through to Joey every time even though there are at least ten other volunteers. * Even if Phoebe's donation hadn't gotten him on TV, all Joey would've had to point out is that the motive for her deed was to beat Joey and prove her point. In fact, any deed she completed with that motive could be said to lack altruism. *Monica and Chandler sneak into Central Perk from the inside door and are trying to act nonchalant. In an attempt to do so, Monica is shown picking up a coffee mug that was left behind by the previous customers. For a cleanliness freak like Monica its unusual so she must be so busy pretending that she did not think before taking a sip from it. The coffee was Monica's from before they went in the closet. The reason that the Friends always have their spot at the coffeehouse (except for the intro scene in one early episode) is because their spot is truly theirs. You can see the RESERVED sign on the coffee table in most episodes. In fact it is on the table in this scene. *Phoebe seems shocked to hear that Santa isn't real, but in Season 1 Joey takes about his job as Santa in previous years, and later in Season 4 when Phoebe is pregnant, she gets Santa pants (with a list of good and bad "baby" names) thinking they are maternity pants. *When Joey enters Monica's apartment, she's holding the mug by the handle but when the shot changes Monica's not holding it by the handle. Continuity *Ross's year of birth is inconsistent. In "The Pilot" (1994), Ross says he is 26, implying he was born in 1967. Also, in "The One Where Monica And Richard Are Just Friends" (1997), he says he is 29. However in the next season in "The One Where They're Going To Party" Ross also says he is 29, implying he was born in 1968. Furthermore, in this episode Ross says he is about to get divorced again before he's thirty, implying he is still 29 and born in 1969. Also, in "The One With The Video Tape," Ross claims that he backpacked across Europe in 1983 then whispers to himself "I was thirteen?", implying he was born in 1969 or 1970. This inconsistency happens with all main characters in the show. *Chandler expresses to Monica that she is the one who made him the best sex she's ever had. This is actually true, as he is referring to the time she taught him about hitting all of the seven erogenous zones in a woman to dramatically improve his sex life with Kathy in "The One With Phoebe's Uterus," who would be the last ever serious relationship he had before Monica. External links * The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS at the Internet Movie Database Episode Navigation Category:Friends Episodes Category:Season 5 Category:Friends Category:Episodes Category:Season 5 Episodes Category:Episodes with Phoebe's name in the title